Undocumented Labor Exploitation

This cluster debates how businesses hire undocumented immigrants for cheap labor, suppressing wages and exploiting workers, advocating for enforcement against employers rather than immigrants to fix the system.

➡️ Stable 1.2x Politics & Society
3,635
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#6869
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
2
2008
5
2009
35
2010
45
2011
55
2012
36
2013
90
2014
86
2015
136
2016
201
2017
342
2018
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2019
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2020
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2021
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2022
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2023
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2024
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2025
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2026
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Keywords

washingtonpost.com US CIS OSHA POSIWID ICE BLS WWII immigration labor immigrants workers undocumented illegal immigrant wage laws illegally

Sample Comments

tunap Aug 29, 2016 View on HN

Very possible to import immigrants, illegally or through visas, to labor for below market rates.

throwaway292939 Aug 22, 2018 View on HN

It sounds like immigrants are willing to do it because they have no other option. The issue here isn't US citizens deserving special treatment; the issue is closing the loophole which only benefits the companies.

Redoubts Sep 8, 2025 View on HN

Why? they’re being subsidized to hire Americans, not exploit foreign undocumented workers

ratelimitsteve Oct 27, 2025 View on HN

POSIWIDinstead of assuming we want to stop illegal immigration and then asking why we don't do the obvious thing that would accomplish that goal (eliminating the incentive to hire illegally by punishing companies that do it such that it's not worth it on the balance sheet), look at what the situation actually is and ask yourself why people would want that. The situation right now is that there's a near-endless supply of labor that is 100% exempt from any and all labor protectio

m0zg Feb 3, 2019 View on HN

It's not "migrant" labor. It's labor which consists of people who _have broken US law_, and it's hired by people who are also breaking US law. It's like that article a few weeks back which called an armed home invader an "unwanted house visitor". These people _can't legally work here_, like, at all. If this is something you don't like, have your congresspeople change the law. Selective enforcement of laws is an insanely slippery slope, you won&#

ofjcihen Jul 13, 2025 View on HN

Agree with this 100 percent and to add further part of the reason this wasn’t dealt with is because people on both sides of the aisle know that it brings cheap labor.Heck, even Trump wanted to make farm and hotel workers exempt until there was too much blow back.Every other country enforces its immigration laws. There’s no good reason that we shouldn’t.

geezer Jun 23, 2011 View on HN

Unjust to ordinary Americans as well as the immigrants, while favoring businesses. If there was a legal avenue to bring in enough individuals for farm work and other manual labor, there would be far fewer illegals living in the shadows and wages would be higher.

porkbeer Sep 9, 2023 View on HN

Cheaper labor held in line by the hope of citizenship to displace current workers.

colordrops Oct 28, 2025 View on HN

Seems like a way to get non-citizen day laborers at super low rates without the liability.

throw734785 Jul 2, 2025 View on HN

That is rich from Americans, who exploit illegal immigrants for cheap labour!